Research on automotive ECU remote update and it's security

Abstract

With the rapid development of automotive electronic technology, more ECUs with much complicated control programs are used in automobile, which could cause serious problems in security and sensitivity. To solve this problem, on-board ECU software program needs to be upgraded. Traditional upgrading technology is so complicated that only professionals can make it, which consumes long period and high cost. Thus, the remote wireless upgrade technology is of great importance in simplifying update process and improving efficiency. This paper aims to develop a completed remote upgrading system for an on-board ECU, involving the overall scheme of remote update, security technology and functional design. Firstly, a general plan is come up including the functional framework and telecommunication mechanism between remote server, on-board platform and ECU. Secondly, aiming to avoid potential safety hazards in remote update, optimal encryption algorithms are added to increase security mechanisms. Thirdly, the on-board hardware platform with Android operating system, remote server and client application are built to realize update-package upload and download as well as other functions through 3G/WiFi. ECU is connected to the platform through distributed CAN bus. Moreover, a bootloader program is developed to reprogram the ECU, which is verified in a test combined with the on-board platform.